Japan Day 6 - Mitsui Outlet Park Sendai Port

01 Nov - For our first weekend in Sendai, we decided to visit the Sendai Umino-Mori Aquarium and the Mitsui Outlet Park Sendai Port which is nearby. For our hotel, we chose the Dormy Inn EXPRESS Sendai Seaside which has a 4.4 out of 5.0 ratings over 1500+ reviews on Google Maps. We checked out of our existing hotel promptly at 10am and took a train to Nakanosakae Station, before walking about 30mins to Dormy Inn.

One interesting fact we found during this Japan trip is that all the hotels do not allow early check-in when you arrived early. When they say check-in starts at 3pm, they will only give you the room key at 3pm! If you want early check-in, you need to pay for it!

Anyway, we deposited our bags with the receptionists and off we go to Mitsui Outlet Park Sendai Port.

Dormy Inn EXPRESS Sendai Seaside

Mitsui Outlet Park Sendai Port

Usually for outlet malls, we will find some good deals but this time, it is not the same. After doing the currency conversion, the price is actually more expensive than Singapore, especially foreign branded goods. In addition, most shops are selling winter wears, which are not suitable for Singapore tropical weather. In the end, we camped inside the food court as *OEE* catches his nap and left the site empty handed. Well before we left, we rode the ferry wheel to take a look at the night scene, which is kind of ......... boring. Haha

Lighted ferry wheel inside the outlet mall

Night scene at top of the wheel

One last look before we left Mitsui Outlet Park Sendai Port

We made it back in time for the traditional complimentary supper served by Dormy inn from 9.30pm to 11pm. For this Dormy, they are serving the Yonaki Soba Noodle. It sure tasted good! After which, we took a bath at the onsen and retired for the night, to recover energy for tomorrow aquarium visit!

A typical Working from Hotel Day in Japan

Mitazono (The place we are staying) overall I feel is a pretty chill and relax town. There are not many people and pace of life is much slower compared to Singapore. The weather helps too as it is coming to the start of Autumn where temperature is at a nice spot to enjoy strolling on the street. A typical day spent while *OEE* is at his preschool is as below:

Morning

We try to make the 7.45am timing for the hotel breakfast where they served up Sendai specialty - Beef Tongue Stew. Well, it certainly feel tasty for the first few days but you will feel quite sick of it if you continue eating it every single day. Besides the stew, the pastry available are fresh and tasty, along with other dishes which they will rotate every day for the whole week. 

Typical breakfast variety at Super Hotel Mitazono Sendai Airport

After breakfast, we take a 45mins walk to the preschool to drop *OEE*, after which, we will either drop by a convenient store or we will head to the Aeon mall near Morisekinoshita Station to buy back some sandwich for lunch. One interesting thing we did for the first few days was to stop by 7-11 to try the self made smoothie that is only available in Japan.

7-11 self made smoothie

Aeon mall - our favourite hangout for the next 2 weeks

One discovery - Gong Cha tea is really nice! It certainly does not taste the same as Singapore

Afternoon

After the grocery shopping, it is time to head back to work. Before fetching *OEE* from school, we take the opportunity to visit the onsite hotel onsen to have a quick shower when it opens at 3pm. At this time, usually we can have the whole onsen to ourselves. One fact that I discover is that Japanese typically only stays a few mins to soak inside the onsen, unlike the perception that one should stay soaked as long as possible. Haha

Onsite hotel onsen 

(Disclaimer: photo taken from Trip.com)

Beautiful evening

Evening

For dinner, we usually made our way to the Aeon mall food court to have our favourite ramen. I got myself the Nagasaki Champon, where they served a generous portion of soup, noodles and vegetables at an affordable price of 1100 yen (S$9.45). Yes, the champon is so good that I went back to eat it almost every single night!

Night

Night time was usually spent on bathing *OEE* at the onsen, catching up a bit on work while waiting for the clothes to finish washing at the laundromat before retiring for the night. If we do come back early after dinner, we will spend some time at the hotel self served alcohol bar that is open from 6-8pm, where a variety of wine, gin, whiskey, vodka, and sake are made available to drink to your content.

Japan Day 1 - Start of 3 weeks journey

26 Oct - By God's grace, this is a special trip that was made possible as we are bringing *OEE* to experience a 2-week Japan Pre-school exchange! We only started exploring the idea some 6 months in advance around May 2025 where there are still a lot of things that needed arrangement. The trip seems impossible but we prayed and somehow, He made all the things clicked into place:

1. Manager is supportive of me Work from Hotel for 2 weeks instead of taking annual leaves.
2. Managed to arrange 2 make-up lectures which I will miss during the time I am in Japan.
3. The platform vendor (Japan Preschool Exchange) recommended a pre-school in Sendai which fits all our requirements:
• School must be walkable from our accommodation as we are not intending to drive.
• Accommodation must be easily accessible via train.
• School must have teachers who can speak English for communication.
4. Special bonus (which we later found out. Thank God!):
• We can arrange our own accommodation and not strictly followed the platform arrangement. This makes it less expensive by reducing 20% of the cost.
• He lead us to find our accommodation - Super Hotel Mitazono Sendai Airport, which is the only hotel which allow triple sharing of room.
• This Super Hotel is top notch! Though considered budget, it has an onsite onsen.
5. *OEE* transport fee is FOC as child ticket is only required for 6 years old and above. Child ticket is priced at 50% of normal adult price and this applies to Shinkansen as well.
6. Fall of Japan Yen nearer to the trip which made things less expensive.

We flew via Asiana red eye flight to Sendai International Airport, transiting Incheon. Not much to see over at Sendai Airport, except an exhibition on the 11 March 2011 tsunami, which Sendai was hit pretty hard. Super Hotel Mitazono Sendai Airport was easy to get to. Just take the airport train and drop off the next stop!

Super Hotel Mitazono Sendai Airport